No. 472 "~)X.'23 3 March 1989 No More PATCOs! To Hell with the Labor Boards! ----_..... _- • wv Machinists march against lAM Lodge 1018 meeting, Lorenzo in Atlanta, April 1988. Strike Eastern, February 23. Spread the Strike, Shut Down the Airports I FEBRUARY 27-The International called on Bush to put an end to the insulted, harassed and fired by Lorenzo asked Bush to impose another 60-day Association of Machinists (lAM) is "appeasement" of the unions at East­ and his arrogant yuppie managers since "cooling off" period; this will be more preparing to go into battle at midnight, ern! Just as the Reagan years opened up the corporate raider took over, are of the same slow death that has wiped March 3, against labor-hater Frank with the campaign to "roll back" Com­ ready to fight. There are plenty of air­ out the jobs of thousands of Eastern Lorenzo and Eastern Airlines. Lorenzo munism and "roll back" the unions, line workers, fed up with two-tier wages workers. To win, Machinists and their has ordered wages slashed by half. His today the ruling.class wants to use the and givebacks, who want to join them. allies must forge a new leadership in real aim is to destroy the union. The fight at Eastern to go after the entire But the labor tops, who fear class strug­ struggle, one that will use the workers' future of a key section of the organized labor movement. They are out to give gle like the plague, are preaching faith social power to take on Lorenzo, the labor movement is now on the line. That the lAM the "PATCO treatment" and in "mediation" through Bush's labor bosses' politicians and the bosses' mouthpiece of American capitalism, the labor must make a stand: All out with boards and the Democrats in Congress, courts. Don't bow to the labor boards­ New York Times, editorialized that the lAM-Shut down the airports! who are no friends of labor. The Strike big to win big! "Labor Threatens the President" and The ranks of the lAM, who have been National Mediation Board has just continued on page 8 RICO to prosecute the sale of books and videos with sexual content as "racketeering. " Salman Rushdie The German Jewish radical poet Heinrich Heine's apt warning is now poignantly displayed at the memorial to the victims of Hitler's Dachau con­ centration camp: "Once they burn 'Must Not Be Silenced I books, they will end up burning peo­ ple." To preserve a social system which The following statement was issued 17th-century defense of freedom of CIA-backed "freedom fighters" skin had outlived its progressive mission by the Partisan Defense Committee conscience and press, Areopagitica, alive schoolteachers for teaching girls even before the dawn of this century, and the Spartacist League / u. S. on "but he who destroys a good book kills and women to read. Pursuing its policy the capitalist ruling classes are com­ February 22. reason itself." of conciliation with the mullahs, the pelled to revive religious obscur­ Using the jihad against Rushdie, Afghan government just banned the antism, superstition and terror; the Ayatollah Khomeini promises heav­ Iran's rulers manipulate passions in book also! pogrom is industrialized, the Inquisi­ en and $5.2 million to the assassins order to divert concern for the millions But the exploitation of religious' tion goes high tech, and Armageddon of noted author Salman Rushdie as who died in the pointless war with bigotry tn the. service of political tyr­ is nuclear. The defense of the social, punishment for writing The Satanic Iraq, and from a shattered economy anny is by no means the monopoly of scientific and cultural achievements of Verses. Demonstrations of Islamic and endless repression. The Shi'ite the Islamic world. In the name of the Renaissance, the great bourgeois­ fanatics against the book in Pakistan theocracy launched its holy war "national security" Nixon tried to sup­ democratic revolutions including the and India killed eight. In New York against The Satanic Verses after ex­ press the Pentagon Papers; Thatcher American Civil War, and the con­ Cardinal O'Connor chose Sunday ecuting thousands of leftists and other attempted the same with Spycatcher. quests of the proletarian October morning mass to denounce The Satan­ dissidents, seeking to drown every Crying "blasphemy," Christian fun­ Revolution in Russia-from free­ ic Verses. Three major U.S. bookstore manifestation of social discontent in damentalists together with assorted dom of conscience to freedom from chains controlling 2,400 outlets or­ rivers of blood. The so-called "com­ fascist scum have launched a crusade exploitation-is inseparable. In de­ dered the book off their shelves. Rac­ munity of civilized nations" watched against Martin Scorcese's film The fense of the fundamental democratic ist South Africa joined the Islamic the mounting wall of corpses in total Last Temptation of Christ. Book­ rights and elemental human decency world in banning the book altogether silence, while the New York Tiines burners in white sheets and black robes we demand: Let The Satanic Verses while French and West German pub­ applauded the "liberalization" of ira­ have tried to ban Darwin and even Be Read! lishers suspended their translations. nian society. Khomeini's Iran is a Goldilocks from public and school "Who kills a man kills a reasonable foretaste of what a mujahedin victory libraries. Following Ed Meese's porn See article on page four. creature," wrote Milton in his eloquent would mean in Afghanistan, where tile commission, the government uses S.F. Labor: Defend Greg Wiggins! ~ SAN FRANCISCO, February 24-The if he would find the presence of 30 or 40 frame-up trial of black Muni bus driver Muni drivers in the courtroom in­ Greg Wiggins ended its fourth day today timidating! TWU Local 250-A gave a with officer Eugene Yoshii on the wit­ trial update in the union newsletter of ness stand, the third cop to testify. Last 23 February, saying, "The strong show October, while Wiggins was driving his of support & solidarity from our mem­ bus he was beaten viciously by four cops bers is very much appreciated." The screaming racist insults. He is on trial drivers are standing solid behind' Greg now on trumped-up charges of battery because they know these racist labor­ on a police officer, resisting arrest and hating cops. Almost every driver has his more. In addition to severe injuries to own story of harassment or worse at his neck, back and throat, Wiggins has a their hands. Tito Torres, Wiggins' attor­ fractured hip that keeps him in con­ ney, told the San Francisco Chronicle stant pain. (24 February), "They had no reason to As in the January 12 pretrial hearing, even arrest him. They come in here "inconsistencies" keep cropping up in like choirboys, as if they did nothing the testimony of the cops. Their story wrong." stinks; it won't hold together because The Chronicle article, headlined they have too much to cover up. Yoshii "Contradictory Versions of Assault is the cop who's being sued by his former Case Told," also referred to support for rookie partner, who says he raped her in Wiggins from other unions. Telegrams March 1987. In his testimony Yoshii and letters to the D.A. have been sent by also admitted he shot an unarmed man officials from Bay Area unions in­ in the face during an arrest last Decem­ cluding Machinists Local 739, Amal­ ber. Y oshii revealed that some of the Greg Wiggins (center, with cane) and supporters from TWU Local 2S0-A in gamated Transit Local 1555 (BART other cops present at that brutal shoot­ front of the courthouse. workers), AFGE Local 1457 (Presidio ing were the same ones involved in beat­ workers), Teamsters Local 315 and ing and arresting Wiggins. out the word about the frame-up. A leaf­ the bus barns. Before the trial began, more, responding to the Partisan For several months Wiggins' fellow let calling for the membership to stand some 2,000 copies of a 10 February leaf­ Defense Committee's call for union sol­ drivers in Transport Workers Union behind Wiggins was signed by 89 driv­ let with an update on the case were idarity on behalf of Wiggins. In New (TWU) Local 250-A have worked to get ers last December and circulated in all distributed among the drivers, calling York, 107 transit workers from TWU for "a big continuous show of union Local 100 signed a letter to the SF support to send a message to the court, district attorney demanding the charges the cops and the racist city officials from be dropped. The Bay Area Labor Black Capitalist Offensive Agnos down, that labor won't tolerate League for Social Defense has called on racist police terror!" the labor movement to defend Brother and Labor Revolt Each day in court Muni drivers in uni­ Wiggins. As the February LBL news­ During the depths of the Great Depres­ form have turned out, many coming for letter, distributed among Muni and sion in 1931, as the working class was as much time as they can between split other SF workers, says, "S.F. is a taking it on the chin, American Trotskyist shifts. Their presence has not gone labor town! Let's use that strength to leader James P. Cannon insisted that unnoticed: during jury selection the win a big victory for Greg Wiggins and American workers would again show their prosecutor asked one prospective juror all of us.". fighting capacity. Within three years work­ ers in three cities had undertaken general strikes, launching what became the might­ TROTSKY iest labor upsurge in American history.